ocean

A few days ago I was out for a swim at my favorite swim beach with my girlfriend. The sky was grey, windy, pretty cold and it was threatening to rain. Aside from the two lifeguards obligated to stay until the first raindrops, we were the only ones there… or so we thought.

Enter Ainsley, steamrolling through the water in full butterfly stroke straight toward us carving through the significant chop like butter.After wiping looks of awe off of our faces we found her mom and introduced ourselves. We would meet the next morning to capture some images of this determined athlete at the same beach.

Ainsley was training for state competitions back in Colorado while here on summer break with her family. Her youth, just 12 years old, mixed with her natural born athleticism were so inspiring. As I prep for the Olympics and get ready to head to Rio, it is this hopeful, determined and optimistic energy I look forward to most.

Ainsley, maybe we’ll see you at the next one… I don’t doubt that we will!

Click through the gallery above to view more images and be sure to follow me on instagram during the RIO Olympics. @afrotographer

The International Yacht Restoration School in Newport, RI is known as the premier wooden boat building school in the country. It has a huge following and a long waiting list for admission. They recently added Marine Systems and Composites programs and needed new images to showcase these new programs and continue to capitalize on their heritage. IYRS contacted me to shoot these images and here are a few. Working with IYRS was a unique and wonderful experience because of the amazing creations that they craft and creative freedom they allowed me. You can see how IYRS has used the images on their website here. http://www.iyrs.edu and read about their experience on their blog here IYRS Blog Please take a look at my website as well for more IYRS images here. www.jasonevansimagery.com

Don’t ask me what the other 146 reasons are. They constantly change… but there are too many to list.

Today’s reason is that while most people were just getting up and starting to shovel their cars out after Hercules dumped snow on us, a few souls braved the negative wind chills to find solitary surf. Snow covered cars, unplowed roads, single digit temps, 20mph winds, frozen salt water covering the rocks – it didn’t matter. The call to surf is strong.

For those of you who didn’t know we have good surf in Rhode Island, well we do. Here’s a video of some of the best over the last year. I hope it brings inspiration to Irene for a visit later this week.